Typography

Share This

Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold is considered the favorite going into this weekend's fight against Tim Boetsch. Though it may not please his upcoming opponent, Luke agrees with the estimation.

"He lost to Costas [Philippou]. I just beat Costas," Rockhold reasoned in an interview with MMAFighting.

The UFC middleweight bounced back from a 'Knockout of the Year' loss to Vitor Belfort in his last Octagon outing with an impressive first round TKO win over Philippou - a man who finished Boetsch via strikes back in 2012. Now Luke and Tim are set to meet in a bout that was originally set to take place back at UFC 166, before Rockhold was forced to withdraw due to injury.

Boetsch feels the two are headed for a 15-minute war which will most likely end with both being treated in the emergency room. Rockhold, however, isn't anticipating for that to happen.

"I never see that in my head," explains Luke. "The more you think that, the more likely it could happen. I've prepared for that war. I'm ready for it, I've been through it and I've shown I can handle it. My mindset is to go in there and win effectively and as efficiently as possible. I'm going to go in there and just try to pick him apart and demolish him."

Current competition aside, the athlete fighting out of the world-renowned AKA gym has got a certain British fighter on his hit list, namely Michael Bisping. Not long after he lost his most recent contest against Tim Kennedy, Bisping took to Twitter to challenge Luke.

"It was pretty hilarious, for him to come out of the blue and throw that on me," laughed the 11-2 185lb'er. "The tables have turned. Like I said on Twitter, I'm never opposed to easy money. I'll take a pay check to shut Bisping's mouth for good. It takes a lot to shut his mouth. Tim had a great fight and won the fight but maybe need to put another 'Hendo' on him."

"It'd be sweet to shut him up, that's all I can say. I wouldn't mind taking a step back to shut his mouth, I'm not gonna lie."

It seems Rockhold isn't one to hold back when it comes to expressing himself honestly. When asked about his feelings regarding his former opponent Vitor Belfort's troubles regarding the recent banning of TRT in MMA, Luke was calm and collected yet frank in his response.

"He didn't release his test [results] and I think that speaks volumes. If he didn't [fail the test] then why wouldn't he release the test results?"

Rockhold vs Boetsch is set to take place this Saturday at UFC 172 at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.